Monday, January 5, 2009

Just Another Day

It was a Monday, of course, just like your day and the first day back to all sorts of stuff, just like it was for many of you.

We just do life with a certain twist of insanity. A pleasant twist, sort of like getting a fresh lime slice in your diet coke at a friends house just because she knows you like it that way.

We began the night before with our Little Miss and all her attachment issues and sleep issues and just really feeling like last night wasn't made for sleep. Then we had Little One and his medical issues. Lets just say phlegm and nasal feeding tubes are not a good mix.

By 8:30 this morning I knew I'd be doing about 8 more loads of laundry.

Somehow by 10 we'd managed to accomplish a whole lot. We got every one's piano practiced. We continued with phlegm and added in teething. We worked hard at potty training. We got some of our chores done.

The next chunk of time involved getting dinner into the crock pot. Was there even life before the crock pot? How did a person get along? I'll confess now to owning more than one. More laundry got done. I talked to the vet about Lady Dog and how she is fast becoming Million Dollar Dog. I think she will get well soon simply through the sheer will power of The Mr. We got in a set of grammar lessons and a reading lesson. We read through several long over due history chapters.

Lunch and some play time. More laundry, toddlers and teething. I think somewhere in here was where I got to spend some quality time with our toilet and a plunger. Something about boys...a joy I got to experience not once today, but twice.

Did I mention laundry? Well, just in case you were wondering, I did some more. We snuck in a science lesson for The Littlest Mr. and read a whole lot more history. Right around the afternoon collapse time, we took turns playing with the toddler and doing Math With Mom. Yes, yes, it's a highlight of their day. NOT.

We continued through our day, medicating the dog, potty training and just generally keeping life to a low roar. Right around the time Little One was upchucking his afternoon feeding, we started the scramble to get to Tae Kwon Do. See, we haven't been there in weeks, and they actually called today to see what happened to us. Anyway, Little Miss decided she'd go along for the ride, but was not going to wear any seat belt. It was like putting a seat belt on a porcupine in the third seat of the van with other kids climbing over me. So much fun we have over here.

The Littlest Mr. had a major meltdown. He couldn't decide if he wanted to go to class or not. That first day back can be a tough one. He did go from holiday mode of sweets, screen time and late nights to early mornings, healthier foods and zero screen time. A shock to his little system. In the end, he enjoyed his class.

On the way there we had to wait for a train. A train that was stuck. It kept going back and forth. Mean while, traffic backed up. Between the train and J.K. Lee, Litte Miss fell asleep. This is a stretch of just a few miles and only a few minutes time.

Finally there we piled into Tae Kwon Do in groups. I'm sure it was a sight to see. First was Little Mr. all out of sorts and very loud about being late because of the train. Then The Littlest Mr. who still wasn't sure he really wanted to be there. Then came me with Little One all in his winter snug suit looking like a giant marshmallow starfish, dragging along by the hand is Little Miss with her eyes barley open. It's not until I'm taking off shoes and coats that I realise she only has one shoe on. The other one is in the van.

I could go on and on, but the real point is that it was one of our best days ever. It was wild and loud and fast, sticky, smelly and wet. There were tears and runny noses, wet pants and barf. In the end, total perfection.

Each kid got what they needed, even if it wasn't exactly what they wanted, but we all know those are two very different things, or at least we ought to. At the end of the night when everyone was cleaned up and snuggled off to sleep, it was a thing of beauty to praise God for.